Eurozone governments kept Greece afloat on Wednesday after agreeing to authorize a payment of 5.2 billion euros (US$6.72-billion) from the region’s bailout fund, despite opposition from some member states following the Greek election results

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone governments kept Greece afloat on Wednesday after agreeing a payment of 5.2 billion euros from the region's bailout fund, despite opposition from some member states following the Greek election results. After a conference call, the board of the European Financial Stability Facility, the 700 billion euro bailout fund administered by the 17 countries that use the euro, agreed to make the scheduled payment, which will allow Greece to meet near-term bond redemptions and other obligations. An initial 4. ...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone governments kept Greece afloat on Wednesday after agreeing to authorize a payment of 5.2 billion euros ($6.72 billion) from the region's bailout fund, despite opposition from some member states following the Greek election results.

BRUSSELS: Greece's European creditors are playing a game of pass-the-parcel about who should stump up the money to avert a default at the end of June if Athens clinches a last-gasp deal this week on a package of reforms to unlock frozen bailout funds. Greece must repay the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) by June 30 or be declared in default, potentially triggering capital controls to prevent a bank run and pushing it closer to an exit from the euro zone.

ATHENS: It was a small room with a plain wooden table a few feet wide. The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sat on one side, along with a translator and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. On the other sat President Francois Hollande of France; around were a handful of officials. In this modest Brussels setting last Friday morning, key players in the great Greek debt drama tried to avert a meltdown that could threaten the future of the euro and even the European Union (EU).

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out a "classic haircut" on Europe's loans to Greece, but European law leaves sufficient wiggle room to work out other forms of debt restructuring if the political will is there. Merkel is trapped between fierce domestic opposition to going soft on Athens, and growing international pressure to grant Greece debt restructuring if it delivers convincing reforms in a deal to keep the country in the euro zone.

Eurozone ministers agreed the loan from an EU-wide fund, enabling Greece to pay back arrears to the European Central Bank (ECB).
Sky News reports that any contribution to the loan by Britain would be protected.
“It will be an EU-wide bridging loan, just to keep Greece going over the course of the next days and weeks, worth €7bn,” Sky’s Economics Editor Ed Conway said.